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DPIC Reports

Below are reports released by the Death Penalty Information Center since its incep­tion, cov­er­ing sub­jects such as race, inno­cence, politi­ciza­tion, costs of the death penal­ty, and more. When open­ing a report, please allow the report page to load ful­ly before select­ing links to sec­tions or foot­notes. Most of these reports are also avail­able in print­ed form from DPIC. For a copy of one of these reports, e‑mail DPIC. For bulk orders, please down­load our Resource Order Form.

Reports are sep­a­rat­ed into Year End Reports, In-Depth Reports, and Special Reports. In-Depth Reports are DPIC’s sig­na­ture long, thor­ough reports on major death-penal­ty issues. These include ​“The 2% Death Penalty,” exam­in­ing geo­graph­ic arbi­trari­ness in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and ​“Behind the Curtain,” cov­er­ing secre­cy in the death penal­ty sys­tem. Special Reports are short­er, and typ­i­cal­ly address a spe­cif­ic event or ques­tion. These include DPIC’s expla­na­tion of the 2017 spate of exe­cu­tions that were sched­uled in Arkansas, and our analy­sis of the largest num­ber of exe­cu­tions per­formed on a sin­gle day.

Reports: 56 — 60

Dec 17, 1996

The Death Penalty in 1996: Year End Report

The over­all pace of exe­cu­tions in the United States remained high in 1996 and the prospects for the future are for even greater num­bers of peo­ple put to death each year. As of December 17, there were 45 exe­cu­tions, most­ly by lethal injec­tion. This rep­re­sents a slight drop from last year when 56 exe­cu­tions rep­re­sent­ed the high­est num­ber since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed in 1976. The 20% decrease in exe­cu­tions this year was prob­a­bly due to the pas­sage of numer­ous fed­er­al and state laws designed to speed up exe­cu­tions. Some…

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Oct 18, 1996

Killing for Votes: The Dangers of Politicizing the Death Penalty Process

The infu­sion of the death penal­ty into polit­i­cal races is reach­ing new extremes and dis­tort­ing the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. Although the use of death sen­tences to gain polit­i­cal lever­age is cer­tain­ly not new, the dem­a­goguery aimed at esca­lat­ing exe­cu­tions has become more per­va­sive. Not only are can­di­dates for leg­isla­tive office cam­paign­ing loud­ly on the death penal­ty, even judges and local pros­e­cu­tors are cit­ing the num­bers of peo­ple they have sent to death row in their cam­paigns for office. This polit­i­cal pro­mo­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment by those respon­si­ble for inter­pret­ing and…

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Dec 15, 1995

The Death Penalty in 1995: Year End Report

Executions in the United States are reach­ing record num­bers. Even with­out the most recent wave of attempts to cur­tail death row appeals, the num­ber of peo­ple put to death has been steadi­ly ris­ing. Contrary to the pop­u­lar mis­con­cep­tion that death row inmates are grant­ed ​“end­less appeals,” there have been 313 exe­cu­tions since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976. This year alone there have been 56 exe­cu­tions, more than any oth­er year in the mod­ern era.

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Oct 01, 1995

With Justice for Few: The Growing Crisis in Death Penalty Representation

As exe­cu­tions reach record num­bers in the U.S., the sys­tem of rep­re­sen­ta­tion for those fac­ing the death penal­ty is in a state of cri­sis. Far from the legal ​“dream team” assem­bled in the O.J. Simpson case, cap­i­tal defen­dants are giv­en attor­neys who fail to inves­ti­gate, who fall asleep dur­ing tri­al or come into court drunk, attor­neys bare­ly out of law school, or attor­neys who say noth­ing when their clien­t’s life is on the line. Too many states encour­age this mal­prac­tice by offer­ing total­ly inad­e­quate pay and resources for death penalty…

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